


Forging An Empire: Documentation and Timeline

by Kudara



Series: Forging An Empire: An Asari Empire Verse Story [3]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alien Culture, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Historical, Gen, Thessia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 08:52:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4385588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kudara/pseuds/Kudara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Documentation and Timeline for Forging An Empire: An Asari Empire Verse Story</p><p>Currently contains:<br/>Story Background and Introduction<br/>Timeline<br/>Asari Words and Meanings</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.
> 
> Revision History: 03/07/2015; 03/12/2015; 03/29/2015 (expanded timeline); 07/13/2015; 01/28/2016

**Story Background**

Yes, this is the second version of the intro after I began trying to figure out my timeline for the various first contact scenarios and realized something - clearly Bioware added the idea of a Prothean intervention on Thessia and the beacon after they developed their timeline for ME1. Why? From the first development of agriculture to FTL Humans took around ~14,000 years; Turians took around ~17,000 years, by canon the Asari who are supposed to have the advantage of the beacon to help them advance take over 40K years...err right. That was some uplift alright when you take well over twice as long as everyone else. If they really were uplifted, I'd expect the Asari to have been in space and colonizing planets 25,000 - 30,000 years before every other species, even the Salarians.

This presents something of a problem unless I want to write the Asari uplifting all the other species from their stone ages - which I don't really, that seems rather boring. So I need to either come up with a way of slowing the Asari or speeding up the other races...and I'm going to keep it simple and just speed up the other races and cut out around 25,000 years of what amounted to the Asari dragging their feet while waiting around for everyone else to show up for the story to begin. 

So the short of it? Look at the canon time line and subtract 25000 years at the very beginning - thus the Protheans get wiped out by the Reapers not in 48,000 BCE but in 23,000 BCE. Turians will still begin developing a recognizable civilization in 13,000 BCE only now that will occur only 10,000 years after the Protheans are wiped out. None of this will actually have much of an effect on the story, except that the Asari will only get a 10,000 year head start over everyone else to keep things interesting for them and will have various road blocks put in their way to slow them down a bit further. Do not expect events approaching the Common Era to happen as they happened in canon due to the Asari developing FTL in a more reasonable time scale i.e. around 10,000 years instead of 40,000.

**Story Introduction**

Now other than completely changing the timeline and history – I want to develop an Asari Empire while keeping the Asari the same as canon in relation to their culture and biology. Their Matriarch will have mastered the long view and practiced the deft manipulation of events over the course of centuries. Their Huntresses and Commandos will be the most lethal and dangerous warriors in the galaxy as befitting their centuries of training. Maidens, Matrons and Matriarchs will view their sensuality as both an art and weapon at their skilled disposal, and laugh in dismissal at other races who think the Asari should bow to another race’s mores and morals over their own.

While all of the previous, the Asari will also be all of the following: they will value cooperation over competition, both politically and personally; their actions and decisions, while they may be manipulative, will trend toward outcomes that are nurturing instead of exploitative; and the vast majority of them will tend to be kind toward others rather than cruel.

As per canon, the Asari will be able to alter their pheromones to attract and arouse any species and any gender. This is a long term effect in that any species around an asari for an extended period will tend to find them sexually attractive. Multiple asari within an enclosed space will of course amplify this effect. The non-canon addition is that the Asari will also be able to use their pheromones to sooth and calm rather than arouse; they naturally do this with each other - especially their children, but with some training in biofeedback can do this with other races as well.

In this Mirrorverse, Asari will be about the same size and height as male humans with an average height of right around six feet. Some Asari Huntresses and Commandos will be tall and willowy, while some will be tall and quite muscular; they will certainly not all be the same as if cut from the same cookie cutter mold like they were in game. All Asari will be very unisex in habits and personality, possessing both ‘male’ and ‘female’ characteristics. This will allow various humans, both male and female, to find different asari attractive for various reasons - some will seem more ‘masculine’ and some more ‘feminine’ to humans.

The Asari will have noble and commoner classes, and will have an almost fanatical sense of ‘noblesse oblige’ toward those that they subjugate and especially toward those races and/or individuals which accept their subjugation and display devotion and loyalty in return to their Asari superiors. The Asari will share a devotion to the concept of duty for the common good with the Turians. For those asari who fall far short of Asari cultural ideas and norms, who abuse and exploit instead of nurture and protect those under them - the Justicars are always ready to mete out their deadly judgment on such individuals no matter their rank or station in the Empire.


	2. Timeline

**Story Timeline**

**23,000 BCE** Reapers arrive though the Citadel Relay and begin attacking the Prothean Empire.

 **22,900 BCE** Approximately a century after the initial attack, the Protheans begin to examine the possibility of uplifting very primitive species such as the Turians, Asari and Humans. The decision is made to move forward with the uplift of the Asari even though they are very primitive. The Asari at this stage of their development are just beginning the Earth equivalent of their Late Paleolithic Age (approximately 30,000 years ago) with their population centered in a predictable dispersal pattern around what will become known as the Ceripian Ocean. 

The Asari’s relatively small population and limited geographical dispersion allows the uplift team to use modified scouting probes to disperse a genetically engineered virus which inserts genetic code into the Asari’s genome so that all Asari will be biotics in the future. One side effect of this genetic change is the introduction of an increased risk of undesirable mutations such as the Ardak-Yakshi into the population. Meanwhile the uplift team begins teaching the Asari of the largest settlement around the Ceripian Ocean, named Serrice, the foundations of writing and mathematics alongside more practical skills such as metalworking, navigation, and the basics of astronomy lifting those they are teaching from the equivalent of the early Stone Age into the early Bronze Age.

 **22,880 BCE** After a several decades it becomes apparent that the uplift of the Asari will not be completed before the Reapers finish the extermination of the Prothean Empire. The decision is made for the uplift team, led by Xanabr Ythos, to leave Thessia but not before building an hidden underground archive to either assist the Protheans put into deep sleep in finishing the uplift of the Asari or if that does not occur then after a period of time assist the Asari in uplifting themselves to lead the next cycle against the Reapers. Xanabr Ythos, convinced that the Reapers will find all of the bunkers, secretly builds a shrine in the mountains and inserts hidden code into the Archive to guide the Asari away from the self-serving ways that the Protheans fell into in their arrogance.

 **22,700 – 13,000 BCE** Without the Prothean uplift team to guide them, the Followers of Athame entrench themselves in and around Serrice seeking to preserve the teachings of the Goddess Athame. Only after a few generations do the families of the Followers begin spreading out and founding new city-states, the first is Armali founded by the descendants of Pania T’Soni, second is the city state of Ulee and then the city-state of Cybean. Over the course of time technology in these cities progresses from Bronze Age to Iron Age and finally into the equivalent of early Middle Ages technology. Outside of the area surrounding the Ceripian Ocean and the exchange of more advanced technology primarily from Serrice, most of the Asari still exist as primitive Stone Age tribes.

 **13,000 BCE** With no further contact by the Protheans, the Archive they left behind finally activates in failsafe mode and contacts the Asari to begin uplifting themselves without Prothean aid. The VI based upon Xanabr Ythos instructs the asari High Priestesses of the Great Temple of Athame in Serrice to begin by unifying Thessia under one governmental structure dedicated to what will become known as Athame’s Prophecy for the Asari. To assist with this effort, the VI reveals the location of the shrine built by Xanabr Ythos. 

Also at this time, elsewhere in the galaxy on Palven, the Turians begin to develop their first civilization.

Knowing that the Asari need to develop down an alternate path and not alert the Reapers as to it’s presence, the VI left behind does not just give them technology, but encourages them to focus on science and technology. In addition the VI gives the Asari advice on how to structure their government to both quickly develop a stable global government, but also one which can financially support the effort needed to uplift themselves in as short a time as possible.

 **12999 BCE** The six great Lineages of Serrice swear themselves and the Houses allied with them to the fulfillment of the Prophecy of Athame which was discovered within the Shrine of the Prophecy.

 **12991 BCE** The city-state of Armali, the second largest city-state upon Thessia agrees to form the Alliance of the Prophecy with Serrice to fulfill the Prophecy of Athame.

 **12990 BCE** The city-state of Ulee joins the Alliance of the Prophecy.

 **12989 BCE** The city-state of Cybean joins the Alliance of the Prophecy.

 **12987 BCE** The city-state of Messonia refuses to willingly join the Alliance. After six hours of fighting, the city-state is conquered by the combined Alliance forces commanded by Senior Commander Lidova Saris and becomes the first city-state to be forced into joining. One hundred Huntress hostages are chosen from among the noble families of the city as assurance of good behavior and abiding by the terms of Messonia’s surrender and sent to Serrice.

 **12983 BCE** The printing press is developed at the Temple of Athame’s Scholastic Academy, the largest scholastic academy within the city and the largest scholastic academy upon Thessia.

 **12984 BCE** Lineage M’Tara of the island of Konia joins the Alliance and with them comes the entire population of the seven Khurusan Archipelago islands who owe allegiance to the M’Tara Lineage. Eventually these islands will form the Khurusan Republic with their capital upon Konia.


	3. Asari Words and Meanings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asari words and their meanings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.
> 
> Revision History: 07/20/2015

_Akero_ \- one who leads

 _Akertira_ \- one who trusts or follows - sexually this refers to an asari (or human once they were discovered) who is capable of trusting another/s enough to let them control a melding encounter (usually for pleasure). All partners in the meld contribute their own pleasure, magnifying the total group experience. Akertira are not only highly valued (and treasured) for their rare ability to magnify pleasure, but also for the ability of a rare few of them to bind together three or more individuals for the purposes of producing children with the best characteristics of all in the meld.

 _Araponia_ \- Master sailors, navigators and ocean wayfinders.

 _Daumino_ \- Ancient ocean going sailing vessels whose oversized sails were manipulated by a skilled Araponia to catch the slightest wind and send the ship surging forward across the waves.

 _Duero_ \- The flower of the duero plant is the same hue of blue as the Earth cornflower, and is a common skin hue among asari.

 _Kunaja_ \- the long ridge of flesh that runs from the vagina to the top of the outer lips of an asari. When the asari is aroused this becomes swollen up to three times its usual diameter, pushing apart the outer lips and produces lubrication.

 _Meri_ \- sweet tropical fruit with a taste similar to lychee and jackfruit, often made into a sweet sauce. This sauce is used in many popular Asari dishes and desserts.

 _Orgyia_ \- a unit of measurement that is approximately six feet or two meters or the height of an average asari.

 _Potinia/Potiniini_ \- Grand Matriarchs of a Lineage or Tribal Area to which every other Asari in their Lineage and allied family groups look for guidance and leadership.

 _Sasama_ \- Hardwood deciduous tree that produces tennis ball stone fruit with a thick husk similar to walnut fruits. Like that fruit, the sasama fruit is prized for the nutmeat of the seed inside it once it is fully ripened. The taste is similar to Brazil nuts.

 _Tuweavin_ \- a sweet, fragrant, pale red dessert wine from the marshland tuwean fruit. Best known vintages come from Cybean where they have cultivated large fields of the fruit for tens of thousands of years. When Humanity was added to the Empire, this word became a slang term for the act of melding with a submissive (Akertira) human and then guiding them into ‘sub’ space while sharing pleasure. The greater the trust the human has in the asari while being dominated in the meld the more intense the pleasure or sweetness of the human’s mind. Some humans are even able to duplicate the Asari Akeritira’s ability to meld together multiple minds for reproductive purposes.

 _Tasia_ \- An ancient and most commonly taught martial art, every Asari youth has a grounding in this basic martial skill. Humans find it very similar to the Chinese martial art of Tai Chi.


End file.
